Fantasy & SciFi Lovin' Reviews

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Monday, August 15, 2016

I haven’t been doing reviews much, but even if I don’t do
any more, Suicide Squad is something
that needs a bit more of a thumbs up/thumbs down...or a petition to close down
a movie review site that was always
biased and anti-genre so why does it get this attention now? I’m going my best
to avoid major spoilers, but don’t go past the second paragraph if you want to go in
blind.

On paper, Suicide
Squad sounds like a very, very bad movie. The plot is all over the place,
it’s overburdened by an abundance of exposition, and the villains are less
effective than the final boss of a video game. But it’s also fun, visually
gorgeous, and created by actors and a director who either loved or were at
least incredibly amused by what they were creating.

These strengths and flaws are immediately evident within the
first twenty minutes of the movie. Deadshot (Will Smith) and Harley Quinn
(Margot Robbie) each have scenes where they get to portray their personalities
(Will Smith and PG-13 Harley Quinn) and just what it will be like with these
characters, which is every bit as fun as it sounds. We then continue to what is
more or less a half an hour of Amanda Waller giving exposition about the
backstories of these characters.

I can’t help but compare this to Guardians of the Galaxy. In Guardians,
we get a few minutes of backstory about one character, and then the movie starts.
Throughout the movie, we see more clips of Starlord’s backstory, and we get
hints at the other members of the main cast. Sometimes this could be a bit
shallow (I’d have loved to see some scenes of Gamora and Nebula when they were
younger), but it was generally very well received and hurt the plot much less
than too much backstory would have.

Three of the six members of the Suicide Squad get bits of
their backstory sprinkled in where relevant. Harley, Deadshot, and Diablo all
have pretty much enough. Captain Boomerang really doesn’t need this, and in
fact he only has what backstory he does for the sake of the cameo included in
it. One character’s fate might not have been so obvious if they had actually
included him in the exposition dump, and another could have used this just so
as not to become Generic Squad Member.

All of this makes the massive exposition dump about how each
member was arrested particularly pointless. It doesn’t treat all of the Squad
equally, and it detracts from other things that could have been included later.
Interviews have indicated that both cannibals and crocodiles were studied in
order to make Killer Croc stand out, yet all the movie gives him is that he was
bullied because he was ugly.

From the portrayals in the film, though, I can believe that
both David Ayer and the actors really did do all

they could to make each
character unique. And I wouldn’t mind the dark action scenes if not for the
fact that Killer Croc is even harder to see in them than your average character
of his ethnic background. Add this to the fact that they were fighting literal
faceless grunts that would make the Putty Patrol seem like well fleshed-out
characters and you get a film that is losing any reason to have these action
scenes other than, you know, just to have action scenes.

Which brings us to the villains. Again, mixed bag. Wonderful
effects. There were moments where I was transfixed by what was going on
on-screen. Of course, they clearly couldn’t afford to keep all these effects up
– or was the studio worried the audience would forget who the actress was? I
can never keep these meta-reasons straight – because they dropped off the
effect used to make the Big Bad scarier pretty early on, leaving to an endless
torrent of people posting on social media about how unscary the actress's regular
face is. I wouldn’t have even noticed it without these two aspects, though
looking back I do think she could have piled on the “possessed by an evil
spirit” acting...yet would that have undermined her whole “join me, as only I understand
you” schtick? Funny thing about that, as somebody who didn’t see multiple takes
as the Director surely did, I don’t know the answer to that.

Still, I’m qualified to criticize the villain’s plan. The
villain resurrects her brother to fill in some of the holes in her plot and add
more visual appeal, makes minions by making out with people, and sits working
on something that she alternates between referring to as a spell or a machine.
Her brother apparently just hangs around watching her instead of actually
trying to stop the people determined to kill her, but you probably knew that
already, didn’t you?

The making out with people is a strange touch and a topic I
need to touch on. There doesn’t seem to be a reason beyond titillation for
this, but it’s an extremely short cut. It’s as if there was somebody in the editing
room setting a limit on potential male gaze scenes, as if to say “yes, there
are straight men in the audience, but there are other people too”. A lot of
people have criticized two scenes in particular, both relating to Harley Quinn
(though oddly enough, the scene where she’s cage-dancing doesn’t get much
attention). First is the scene in the trailer, where she strips down, puts on
her brightly colored, non-prison-issue underwear and then her outfit,
surrounded by staring soldiers. What people don’t realize is that there is
literally about one second or less or Harley in her bra while she pulls her
shirt down. There is a small amount of titillation in the scene and I’d be a
fool to pretend there isn’t, but it’s a short scene focusing on how she
(ignorantly or manipulatively) ignores social customs while focusing on her own
needs (what some would call the definition of empowerment). Frankly, the only
thing that disturbed me about this scene is when I was trying to find images
for my Harley Quinn article and found multiple Youtube videos looping this
scene on slow motion. Finally, there is the scene in which Harley is walking
and gives a bit of a jiggle as her booty walks past the camera. Again, an
extremely short cut. This draws the attention of the audience...but that’s why
women in real life make the same gesture. They want someone to look at their
butt. Except in this case, you don’t have the chance to stop and stare the way
you would if someone did this in the mall...and you definitely don’t have a
chance to take this to creepy levels. I guess what I’m saying is that there is
some male gaze here, but it’s no more than real life, and it definitely didn’t
give me the heebie-jeebies the way some of the scenes lingering on Gamora’s
butt in Guardians did.

Thus far, I’ve described Harley in two ways: wanting
attention and either unaware of social norms or manipulatively acting as if she
is. One thing I find interesting is that Robbie mentions how Quinn uses her
psychological training to be manipulative, which indicates that her childish
behavior (which I’ve otherwise been treating as a form of dissociation) may all
be an act (which is, intentionally or coincidentally, an ongoing discussion
about dissociative conditions in the first place). The point here is that
Harley is just as fun and interesting to watch as she was in Batman: The Animated Series when she was
introduced. She is pretty much the same character without adhering to cartoon
physics (although she may still have access to hammerspace). Deadshot is pretty
much Will Smith from every Sci-Fi movie with a hint of sociopath added in for
fun. I don’t think I’m doing a very good job of describing it because watching
these two work – especially around “civilians” – is just pure fun. They pretty
much make the movie. Even when they’re taking a few minutes away from doing
nothing to do nothing before doing nothing for no reason.

And uh, the Joker. He’s in this movie too much, almost to
the point where it feels like not enough. He’s in two or three scenes that are
important to Harley’s backstory (which only highlight the fact that Harley is
the star of the film) and then another three or four scenes in which he reminds
the audience “hey, I’m still here”. I can’t help but wonder given some of the
things that were obviously influenced by studio concerns if there was some
demand to feature a “better known” character more frequently, thereby breaking
up the already choppy plot even further. That’s all speculation though.

If it’s not clear, I love Suicide Squad even though it’s a deeply flawed movie. If there was
a show about Deadshot and Harley going on a road trip and just meeting people,
I would watch it, except it would never happen because TV can’t afford Will
Smith anymore. Every minute, with or without these two, was usually
entertaining, and I have no complaints about any of the visuals or the
cinematography. The story is fairly straight-forwarded, just presented in a
very clumsy way, and if you’re looking for a popcorn flick it’s a great
experience. It’s just not something to watch for deep story, unique
problem-solving, or powerful allegories, but it’s a great time if you want to
see anti-heroes coming together and overcoming a powerful foe. Considering this
is a very popular topic right now (and I could speculate as to reasons why, but
instead I’m just going to point to Guardians
of the Galaxy, Deadpool, and even
Daredevil and Jessica Jones), it’s certainly found the right time to come out. I
just hope the seeds it’s planted can come to fruition in Batfleck and turn out something really cool...like a Harley and Ivy movie.

For more of my thoughts on Suicide Squad, check out this piece I wrote about Harley Quinn on Insomniatic.

Saturday, August 13, 2016

A lot of people I know (myself included) aren't completely sure what to make of Rogue One. It's a very different type of Star Wars movie, hopefully in a good way, but we're just not sure whether or not to be optimistic.

This trailer does look good, though. It's worth noting that it's pretty amazing to see a Grand Admiral uniform in a Star Wars trailer. For a long time there was a sort of canon treadmill, where everything on paper was written to meet new advances in canon but films and TV shows more or less ignored the comics and novels supposedly set in the same continuity as them. The Grand Admiral was invented in the old timeline, but it's one of many concepts that the new story team is carrying over into the new, more unified Star Wars. While I'm not a fan of everything that occurred in the reboot, this is a tremendous improvement and a way to show that all fans are valued, not just the ones that prefer the movies. The fact that a character from The Clone Wars is going to feature in the movie is just more evidence of this.

It's still hard to pre-judge Rogue One, so I'm not going to try to. I'll wait for the release, see it in theatres, and decide from there.

Friday, August 12, 2016

I had originally intended to write a different Pokémon Go article in
this slot - one about the thematic discrepancies between the Pokémon brand and
the mechanics of Pokémon Go - but due to the very loud discussion out
there I thought it best if I take a look at the state of the game itself. I do
have several articles not about Pokémon in the pipeline, but as they
require a little bit more preparation than this I'm going forward with this
first.

So what's the deal with Pokémon Go right now? That's a
difficult conversation to have, partially because there are a lot of
over-reactions. The tracking system wasn't working, and in fact had not been
working for weeks. People recognized that it was not working, and they did not
rage about it. Niantic did two things to fix this: they removed the visual
representation of failure (the footprints that would have been the tracking
system had it worked) and blocked the excessive drain on their servers caused
by third-party tracking systems. Naturally, people reacted calmly...except they
did not at all, at least not the vocal minority. This decision has been
declared by some "the death of Pokémon Go" and other things
that don't make much sense.

Much more damaging is the fact that while wild Pokémon encounters seem to
have increased ("seem to" being the operative word; I haven't started
a new low-level account to see if this was universal or not) it's become much
more difficult to capture them. Even the green-tier 'mons (the easiest to
capture) are now sometimes breaking out of Pokéballs. In my experience, this
has had a pronounced change on the game: I haven't seen a lure model in use in
my city since that changed. At least once a week I will go on a two hour walk
specifically to get more Pokéballs in areas that are otherwise out of my way.
Despite that, I'm scared to use an incense out of concern that I will run out
of Pokéballs while it's active. (By comparison, the only time I've ever run out
of Pokéballs before this was a time when six lures were used in rapid
succession and I was back up/span>to 80 by the end of that night).

When accused of increasing the difficulty in order to encourage players to
engage in more microtransactions - specifically purchasing more Pokéballs
instead of only using the ones at PokéStops - Niantic claimed this was a
mistake. There is of course no way to verify this, and this has become
partially fixed over the past week. Still, one would think this a relatively
simple bug to fix.

Ultimately, it's not a surprise that a game that swept the nation a month ago
is undergoing a bit of a lull right now. While it's become less frustrating to
play - it freezes much less - it's also become slightly less fun. The
"newness" is also gone. When you're wasting Pokéballs on a regular
basis, it's a lot less enjoyable to lay down lures and go hunting. The gyms
have developed into a sort of rotation, and this is not helped by the fact that
at higher levels there seemto be more opportunities to injure your Pokémon and
use items than there are to actually pick up new items. The discussion of
adding PokéCenters could fix this, but as they haven't come out yet (I don't
think there's been a single update that wasn't fixing a bug, reinforcing the
statements of beta testers that the game wasn't ready yet) that's not a fix we
can rely on.

I think the game is settling from its position of worldwide phenomenon to
MMO. Unfortunately, if this happens it will be among the least successful games
in the Pokémon franchise. Still,
there are a lot of updates coming. Over the next few years there will be six
(probably seven by the time it comes) additional generations of Pokémon to add.
How this will function with how difficult it already is to evolve some Pokémon
will be a problem for Niantic to decide. As it is, I still think Pokémon Go is a fun game and one that
still encourages community togetherness and exercise...but Niantic will need to
put in serious work to keep it doing these things rather than becoming a
forgotten curiosity.

Monday, August 01, 2016

When Star Wars: The Old Republic was announced – wait, don’t go
away, this has a point! – they talked about a system in which you and your
friends might conquer a base, the rival faction might conquer it back, and you
(or other people) would repeat. I envisioned many things from this promise, but
unfortunately, none of what I pictured from that claim made it into the
game.
I say this not to criticize a game that has nothing to do with this topic
(though if people are interested I will write more on my experience with The
Old Republic) but because Pokémon Go meets my hopes and
expectations for this system in every way.

For those who aren’t familiar with Pokémon Go, I’ll explain what I’m
talking about. Players who have reached level 5 have the option to choose a
team. The teams have a symbolic meaning, reinforced by their colors, but that’s
not important right now other than the fact that they are Red, Blue, and Yellow.
To conquer a gym, you must first find a gym that is owned by a different team.
There will generally be 1-4 Pokémon stationed there, although one near my house
has 9 (due in part to the extremely powerful Dragonite that acts as Gym Leader).
Using your team of six, you battle the gym in a Punch-Out simulator
complete with Pokémon standard type matchups. If you win, you place
your own Pokémon to guard the gym, and the cycle begins anew with other members
of your own team being able to help you in the initial fight and to help guard
the gym.

This system is built for a constantly dynamic gym experience. Very rarely
does the same team remain in control of a gym for a twenty-four hour period. At
first look, this would appear strange in a setting such as mine where Team Valor
is mainly known for driving around in cars with mostly C.P. (Combat Power) 1800
or higher ‘mons while the other teams tend to be much lower and more frequently
on foot.
What makes this so dynamic is a feature that is very similar to the main
series Pokémon games. While I mention that very few gyms defeat enough
challengers to reach level 6 or higher (meaning they can be guarded by that many
‘mons), most gyms have significantly less than 6 team members. This means that
the attacking player, who almost always has a full team of six, does not need to
be as powerful as the Gym Leader or even the weaker ‘mons guarding the Gym. Add
in the dodging aspect and type matchups, and even a significantly weaker team in
the hands of a skilled trainer can conquer a gym. The catch, of course, being
that they cannot guarantee they will hold the gym.

This system of the gyms constantly changing hands does a lot to even the
playing field. While I may not be powerful enough to conquer a certain gym on my
way to work, it may change hands several times during that shift and leave it
open for me to take it on the way home. Considering that you only need to
conquer a gym once every 20 hours to get the in-game rewards (rather than
needing to hold it for the entire 20 hours) this allows lower-leveled players to
still participate in this system (not to mention the emotional benefits of
besting a C.P. 1600 gym with your C.P. 1200 team). This ensures that there will
always be an opening for new players to get involved in the game, which makes a
major difference when looking at the game’s longevity.
For more of my articles on Pokémon Go, make sure to follow Fantasy &
SciFi Lovin’ and comment with what you’d like to see. If you’re interested
in my thoughts on Pokémon Sun and Moon, head on over to Insomniatic and get involved
in that discussion. If you want to commission a specific article from me (or
just to help me study in Spain next summer) you can also check out my GoFundMe campaign.

Monday, July 18, 2016

While my computer recovers from open heart surgery and the world is abuzz about Sci-Fi and Fantasy news, I am trying to get back into blogging on a regular basis. Judging by the emails I get, I know people are waiting for me, so I want to thank you and get back on with it.

It just so happens that in the world of Pokémon, there are two major topics being discussed right now. I want to give them both their due, without confusing anybody looking for one and not the other. I will be posting articles about Pokémon Go here on Fantasy & SciFi Lovin', and I will be posting articles about Pokémon Sun and Moon over on Insomniatic. Virtually all of these articles will be of editorial rather than news nature.

Let's kick off the discussion of what everybody on the internet these days is expected to have an opinion on: Pokémon Go. This mobile game may be the future of gaming; alternately, it may be a flash fad, nearly forgotten by this time next year and 2016's equivalent to the Half-Blood Prince and Y2K frenzies.

On the side of the future of gaming: Pokémon Go continues the Pokémon tradition of innovation in portable gaming. In the late 1990s, it was one of the first major exclusive Game Boy games (excluding games that were part of a series which shared mechanics with their console versions). It was by far the most successful advocate of the link cable, and probably the reason why most people who owned one did so.

With each successive generation, the multiplayer capabilities would be expanded, to the point where the current generation is widely considered to be an MMO for non-MMO players. Players of Pokémon X, Y, Omega Ruby, and Alpha Sapphire can trade, battle, exchange power ups and secret bases, and more with any player on the planet with access to a Wi-Fi connection.

Let's move on to Pokémon Go. To start with, it's a mobile game - it is accessed via Google Play and the App Store, not a Nintendo handheld system. Unlike most mobile games associated with Pokémon, however, it has all of the staples of a Pokémon game (catching Pokémon, leveling them up, battling) albeit in a simplified form. The end result is that it is accessible to more people than ever, without being so simplified that it loses its appeal.

My writing partner while working on this article.

The next step is its functionality with the real world. Again, this is rather simple, but it is more than most games are able to pull off. Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire already experimented with the idea of taking photos with your Pokémon, but Pokémon Go allows you to do this any time, and with a device capable of sharing it to Facebook. The combination of photo opportunities is as endless as there are locations with a mobile signal, which almost guarantees going viral.

This all appears to be just the beginning of this technology - it is an experiment that has attained massive popularity. Mobile technology - both hardware and software - is improving by leaps and bounds every year. The fact that Pokémon Go falls short of high fan expectations for Augmented Reality (such as using individually placed Pokémon rather than reinterpreting camera input) comes more from the time it would take to program a more extensive game than hardware limitations. As long as innovation is profitable, there is no reason not to expect it to continue.

On the side of Go being a fad...I should mention Ingress. Ingress is the game Niantic was known for prior to Pokémon Go. By all accounts it is a more complicated, original AR game with the same concept...and almost no publicity. Many Pokémon Go players never heard of Ingress until Pokémon Go came out, and it certainly did not make headlines, result in police warnings, or anything of that nature. It has a lot of downloads on the Play Store, but for an innovative game it didn't make a lot of waves.

Another reason to think Pokémon Go is likely to fade away is that we live in a culture of short attention spans. Outside of serious competitive battlers, the most recent main series games have largely fallen off the radar - and the non-remake Generation VI games even moreso. Pokémon Go simply doesn't have the mechanics to support a serious battling scene. Are its days numbered? It may be doomed to fall off the radar after the release of Sun and Moon - at least, without a serious update schedule for new content.

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I plan to write several more of these articles, and have at least two ideas for things I definitely intend to address. I appreciate your comments and look forward to hearing what you want me to talk about!